Archive for the ‘Africa’ Category

We finally have congressional leaders that have guts. Both Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid have led their legislative bodies (the House of Representatives and the Senate) to pass a funding bill that requires the troops to begin withdrawing from Iraq, and to be out by 2008 ( the dates in the two bills are different). It’s about time, since the president has no clue as to how a war should be run. We should have known that when he began pulling forces from Afghanistan prematurely so he could go after Saddam.

Nancy boldly said, “On this very important matter, I would extend a hand of friendship to the president. Just to say to him, ‘Calm down with the threats, there’s a new congress in town. We respect your constitutional role; we want you to respect ours. We want this war to end.’ The American people have lost faith in this president’s conduct of the war; let’s see how we can work together. This war is diminishing the strength of our military, not honoring the commitment to our veterans and not holding the Iraqi government accountable. When the president says he want to veto this bill he says ‘I am vetoing accountability. Accountability of my own administration and of the Iraqi government. He says I forbid…veto, forbid, I forbid, accountability’.”

Nancy, you speak the truth!

And of course George Bush has promised to veto this bill, thus vetoing funding for the troops.

And Harry Reid says, “We have fulfilled our constitutional responsibilities,” and “We’ve spoken the words the American people wanted us to speak. There must be a change of direction in the war in Iraq, the civil war in Iraq.”

The Senate and the House have held together and done what we’ve done,” he told reporters. “It’s now in his corner to do what he wants to do.”

On Wednesday, together they had sent the president a letter that read “This Congress is taking the responsible course and responding to needs that have been ignored by your administration and the prior Congress.”

Maybe they aren’t wimps after all. Of course our own senators voted against the bill. Richard Shelby said, “It is the wrong message at the wrong time, surely this will embolden the enemy, it will not help our troops in any way.”

Let me ask Richard the same question I wanted to ask a radio host yesterday who was critical of the impending vote who said we would be giving the enemy the date we were leaving. Who is the enemy? When we invaded, I thought the enemy was Saddam. But he was soon captured, and has since been executed. So who is the enemy? Is it the Shiites? No. Or the Sunnis? Well? After all, they are fighting each other. You know, our “ally” King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia said this week “In beloved Iraq, blood is flowing between brothers, in the shadow of an illegitimate foreign occupation, and abhorrent sectarianism threatens a civil war.“

So our strongest ally says our presence is an illegal occupation, I guess because it looks to them like we are supporting the wrong side.

To make things even more interesting, at the two day meeting in Riyadh, the Saudis admitted an Israeli reporter traveling with the United Nations. This is the first Israeli reporter allowed in the Muslim kingdom. Wow!

Come to Africam. Always live, always wild. Right now there are zebras. You have to sit through an Orbitz ad, then its a live cam sometimes of a watering hole, sometimes of the savannah. http://www.africam.com/nkhoro_cam1.php.

And if you haven’t read Jason’s comment on yesterday’s blog, take a look.

We finally have congressional leaders that have guts. Both Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid have led their legislative bodies (the House of Representatives and the Senate) to pass a funding bill that requires the troops to begin withdrawing from Iraq, and to be out by 2008 ( the dates in the two bills are different). It’s about time, since the president has no clue as to how a war should be run. We should have known that when he began pulling forces from Afghanistan prematurely so he could go after Saddam.

Nancy boldly said, “On this very important matter, I would extend a hand of friendship to the president. Just to say to him, ‘Calm down with the threats, there’s a new congress in town. We respect your constitutional role; we want you to respect ours. We want this war to end.’ The American people have lost faith in this president’s conduct of the war; let’s see how we can work together. This war is diminishing the strength of our military, not honoring the commitment to our veterans and not holding the Iraqi government accountable. When the president says he want to veto this bill he says ‘I am vetoing accountability. Accountability of my own administration and of the Iraqi government. He says I forbid…veto, forbid, I forbid, accountability’.”

Nancy, you speak the truth!

And of course George Bush has promised to veto this bill, thus vetoing funding for the troops.

And Harry Reid says, “We have fulfilled our constitutional responsibilities,” and “We’ve spoken the words the American people wanted us to speak. There must be a change of direction in the war in Iraq, the civil war in Iraq.”

The Senate and the House have held together and done what we’ve done,” he told reporters. “It’s now in his corner to do what he wants to do.”

On Wednesday, together they had sent the president a letter that read “This Congress is taking the responsible course and responding to needs that have been ignored by your administration and the prior Congress.”

Maybe they aren’t wimps after all. Of course our own senators voted against the bill. Richard Shelby said, “It is the wrong message at the wrong time, surely this will embolden the enemy, it will not help our troops in any way.”

Let me ask Richard the same question I wanted to ask a radio host yesterday who was critical of the impending vote who said we would be giving the enemy the date we were leaving. Who is the enemy? When we invaded, I thought the enemy was Saddam. But he was soon captured, and has since been executed. So who is the enemy? Is it the Shiites? No. Or the Sunnis? Well? After all, they are fighting each other. You know, our “ally” King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia said this week “In beloved Iraq, blood is flowing between brothers, in the shadow of an illegitimate foreign occupation, and abhorrent sectarianism threatens a civil war.“

So our strongest ally says our presence is an illegal occupation, I guess because it looks to them like we are supporting the wrong side.

To make things even more interesting, at the two day meeting in Riyadh, the Saudis admitted an Israeli reporter traveling with the United Nations. This is the first Israeli reporter allowed in the Muslim kingdom. Wow!

Come to Africam. Always live, always wild. Right now there are zebras. You have to sit through an Orbitz ad, then its a live cam sometimes of a watering hole, sometimes of the savannah. http://www.africam.com/nkhoro_cam1.php.

And if you haven’t read Jason’s comment on yesterday’s blog, take a look.